Salalah

Corn, a major crop around Salalah, is grown for the oil which is favored for cooking. The crop is damaged (estimated loss=10% annually) by the gorgeous, but voracious ring-necked parakeets which were imported from India. (Scroll down for a photo of the perpetrator.) There are experiments in progress to lure the parakeets out of the fields with contraceptive-laced food which might be more to their liking than corn.

When the irrigation comes on in late afternoon, the nearby farms are great places to watch birds. The courtship displays and songs over the last few weeks have been fantastic.

The beautiful culprit in the destruction of the corn fields.

You know that you're in the hinterlands when your airport looks like this. This is it.....the entire airport. When I'm expecting a guest to arrive by air, I sit on the terrace and watch for the plane to pass over just to the north. There are so few flights each day that there's never a question if the plane I see is the one my visitor is on. No need for a phone call or text message on arrival; when the wheels hit the ground, I'm already waiting at the gate.

View from my office looking north towards the Dhofar Mountains. They're hills really, especially compared to the towering, jagged mountains up north around Sohar and Rustaq.

Terrace looking NE towards the mountains before the intense heat and sun damaged the flowers. The only plants that seem to be unfazed by the current weather are arugola, marigolds and the ficus trees.

Guest bedroom (any takers?) This east-facing balcony is now very crowded with plants that had to be moved from the terrace because of intense heat and sun at this time of year. The quilt on the bed is one that I made last year in Ibri of traditional indigo and white fabrics that I bought in China.